The Library of American Comics

Last updated
The Library of American Comics
Parent company Currently:
2021–present
Clover Press
Previously:
2007–2021
IDW Publishing
StatusActive
Founded2007
Founder Dean Mullaney
Bruce Canwell
Country of origin United States
Headquarters location San Diego, California
Distribution Diamond Book Distributors [1] [2]
Penguin Random House
Key people Dean Mullaney (Creative Director)
Lorraine Turner (Art Director)
Bruce Canwell (Associate Director)
Kurtis Findlay (Online Communications Coordinator)
Publication typesBooks
Fiction genres American comic strips
Imprints EuroComics
Official website libraryofamericancomics.com

Library of American Comics (abbreviated as LoAC) is an American publisher of classic American comic strips collections and comic history books, founded by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell in 2007.

Contents

History

Background

Dean Mullaney, the founder of the Library of American Comics, developed his interest for comics in his early youth and by the 1970s he was a so-called letterhack, regularly sending in letters of comment to the Marvel comic books' letter pages. His career in comics began in 1977 when he, together with his brother Jan Mullaney [3] as well as Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy, launched the publishing company Eclipse Comics, [4] famous for publishing the graphic novel Sabre . After some time at Eclipse Comics, Mullaney left the comics industry.

In 2006, Mullaney was thinking about making a return to comics, and he found an online article about Sabre written by Bruce Canwell, a former DC Comics and Marvel Comics employee. The article mentioned that Canwell remembered Mullaney as a once frequent letter writer to the Marvel comic books' reader pages which he read growing up, just as Canwell himself was. Mullaney contacted Canwell, and after discussing their future plans, they realized that their visions and ideas were aligned. They discussed going into business together, with the initial goal of bringing a complete hardcover collection of Milton Caniff's comic strip Terry and the Pirates to the public. [5]

Mullaney and Canwell launched the Library of American Comics in summer 2007, beginning publication of a definitive collection The Complete Terry and the Pirates . [6]

Findlay joins

While writing as an animation blogger, Kurtis Findlay discovered a comic strip he had never heard of: "Crawford", created by the famous animator Chuck Jones. When Findlay checked the copyright status of the strip, he was connected by a worker of Tribune Media Services to Dean Mullaney of LoAC. When Findlay approached LoAC with the proposal of publishing a book about the strip, he learned that Mullaney was a fan of Chuck Jones' works; Mullaney was enthusiastic about Findlay's book idea, and Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was was eventually published by LoAC in December 2011.

Since then, Findlay has become the company's Online Communications Coordinator as well as editor for the For Better or For Worse collection published by LoAC. [7] [8]

New partnership

From 2022, LoAC and EuroComics switched publisher to Clover Press. An agreement with IDW Publishing remains to continue publishing the ongoing series of For Better or For Worse.

The first new LoAC title to be published through the Clover Press partnership will be the enhanced reprint series Terry and the Pirates: The Master Collection in early 2022. [9] [10]

Company organization

LoAC create their output of books independently from their partner company Clover Press (previously IDW Publishing), but they share distribution network, printing facilities, and logistics with the partner company.

The team at LoAC is editorially fully responsible for book design, selection of content, essays, and production. Most research, compilation of supplemental material and feature texts, and original writing for the company's biographical books are done in-house, although occasionally there is also some freelance material. [5]

Key people

Publications

The goal of all Library of American Comics collections is to preserve classic American newspaper comics in definitive archival editions. Each frames a comic-strip series with informative essays to provide historical context, both in relation to other comic strips and to the historical events of their time. [4] Unfortunately, however, LoAC discontinued publishing many of the titles before being complete.

Format

All the books The Library of American Comics publish are hardcover, with sewn binding; the majority also come with a dust jacket and sewn linen bookmark. Book size and reproduction color depend on each series.

Recognition

Nominations

Eisner Award nominations

Harvey Award nominations

Awards

Eisner Awards [22] [23]

Harvey Awards [24]

Imprints

Publications of EuroComics

Recognition

Harvey Award

Nominations

  • 2015 — "Best American Edition of Foreign Material" — Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of the Capricon by Hugo Pratt [25]
  • 2016 — "Best American Edition of Foreign Material" — Corto Maltese: Beyond the Windy Isles by Hugo Pratt [26]
  • 2018 — "Best European Book" — Flight of the Raven by Jean-Pierre Gibrat [27]
  • 2019 — "Best European Book" — Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt [28]

Eisner Award

Nominations

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The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy is a series of 29 hardcover books published by The Library of American Comics, an imprint of IDW Publishing, that bring together every Dick Tracy comic strip in chronological order, both black-and-white dailies and Sunday strips, written and drawn by Chester Gould from its premiere on October 4, 1931, until December 25, 1977.

The Complete Little Orphan Annie is a hardcover book series collecting the complete output of the American comic strip, Little Orphan Annie, written and drawn by Harold Gray from the strip's debut in 1924 to Gray's death in 1968. The newspaper comic strip title as a whole was published uninterrupted during 86 years straight (1924–2010) under the Tribune Media Services syndicate. A strip ranked as the most popular comics strip in its heyday according to a Fortune poll. The publisher of this book series is The Library of American Comics, the series' first volume was released in June, 2008.

Li'l Abner: The Complete Dailies & Color Sundays, also known as The Complete Li'l Abner, is a series collecting the American comic strip Li'l Abner written and drawn by Al Capp, originally distributed by the syndicate United Feature Syndicate and later by Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, in total during 43 years before the strip ended. The strip debuted in August 1934 and at its peak, it had an estimated readership of over 60 million people regularly. The collection is published by The Library of American Comics.

The Complete Terry and The Pirates is a collection of the American comic strip, Terry and the Pirates. The strip was authored by Milton Caniff and originally appeared in newspapers between 1934 and 1946 by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate with over 31 million readers. The collection comprises six hardcover volumes and was published by The Library of American Comics between 2007 and 2009. The series' first volume won the 2008 Eisner Award in the category Best Archival Collection - Project - Comic strips.

Bloom County: The Complete Library is a book series published by The Library of American Comics which collects the complete comic strips Bloom County, Outland and Opus all written and drawn by Berkeley Breathed between 1980 and 2008. The first volume of this series was published in September, 2009, and also received the Eisner award in the category Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips in 2010; in November 2012, the final and seventh volume finished the series.

The Amazing Spider-Man: The Ultimate Newspaper Comics Collection is a series of books collecting the first 10 years of The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strips by Marvel Comics, an American comic strip title which debuted on January 3, 1977. It was first syndicated by Register and Tribune Syndicate (1977–1985), later Cowles Media Company (1986), and currently King Features Syndicate (1987–onwards). The series launched in 2015 and is published by The Library of American Comics.

Superman: The Complete Comic Strips 1939-1966 is an unofficial umbrella name for the six following titles: Superman: The Golden Age Dailies, Superman: The Golden Age Sundays; Superman: The Atomic Age Dailies, Superman: The Atomic Age Sundays; Superman: The Silver Age Dailies and Superman: The Silver Age Sundays, all published by The Library of American Comics. These six series of books collects the complete run of the American comic strip Superman by DC Comics, which was originally distributed in newspapers by the McClure Syndicate between 1939 and 1966.

Sunday Press Books is an American publisher of comic strip reprint collections founded in 2005 by Peter Maresca. The company is known as a respected reprinter of comic strips and has to date won three Eisner Awards and two Harvey Awards. Since 2022 the company is partnered with Fantagraphics in distribution and marketing.

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